The present invention relates to absorbent devices used for containing and removing leaked and spilled hydrocarbons in the monitor wells located in the storage tank vaults of automobile service stations and other fueling facilities.
For storage areas of fuels and fuel oils located at service stations and other fueling facilities, there is a need to monitor and remove hydrocarbons spilled or leaked into vaults and storage areas of the storage tanks as part of the routine maintenance of these facilities. This critically important task is necessary to prevent the hydrocarbons that accumulate in these enclosed storage areas from polluting the adjacent substrata by inadvertently allowing them to flow out of the containment area due to excessive rainfall runoff or other causes of an elevated water table.
One common method of extracting the pollutants from these monitor wells is to use a bailing device that is lowered into the well for collecting samples from the surface of the water contained in the well. The pollutant extracted from the well and any water also contained by the bailing device is placed in a container. The well is continually sampled until no pollutant is visible or detected in the bailing device when it is extracted from the well. The container of pollutant and water is then transported to a designated site for disposal.
Such prior art remediation device is extremely labor intensive. Further, hydrocarbon pollutants and contaminated water extracted from a well create a hazardous liquid cargo while being transported to an approved disposal site inasmuch as they are subject to leaking and spilling while in transit because the shipment is bulky and difficult to handle. Disposal of the contaminated liquid requires extracting the pollutants from the water until the water is of suitable cleanliness for free release back into the environment. Often, disposal merely results in the transfer of a pollutant from one environment to another.